Danny O’Neil’s got a must read over at the Times this evening. O’Neil got a hold of a number of players who have played under Pete Carroll, and not just his recent USC players. For example, here’s Drew Bledsoe who played for three years under Carroll in New England:

“I can’t speak highly enough of Pete as a coach and as a person. I really would have loved to have played for the guy for a bunch of my career… If in fact he does end up in Seattle, I would predict that would be a situation that would be a very, very successful situation. I think that Pete would be a great fit.”

Now Bledsoe may not have your complete respect (Go Huskies!), but how about Lawyer Milloy? Personally, Milloy is one of the most easily respectable players in the league and the fact that he was a bright-spot Seahawk this past year (though he’s a free agent effective March 5, mind you), doesn’t hurt:

“I credit Pete for really putting me on the map as a player individually. He just really understood how defenses were supposed to be run. He put players in the right position according to their skill set.”

I’ve been saying for months that our defense is very talented, they’re just sucking. The personnel is not being used properly, and a couple of key components are missing — a playmaking safety, more physical corner, elite pass rusher. If Milloy is right and Carroll CAN find a way to rebuild this defense around our strengths, we might be closer on that side of the ball than many are doom-and-glooming currently.

The point is, the closer we get to making this deal official, the more people who know football, who live and breath football for football’s sake (not ESPN talking heads or random website proprietors), are coming out in support of this move. So much of the backlash against this is because it’s the Seahawks (Carroll has been interviewed 4-6 times that we know of in the past few years, and never before has it been frowned upon by the national media), and because people have misgivings about his history. Well, I’m going to take it from the people who were there in the locker room before I take it from the sensationalist east coast media who decided he had lost his support in the locker room. (I’m not saying he didn’t, I don’t know, I’m merely saying I’ll trust Bledsoe and Milloy before I trust a dude from Massachusetts who was blessed with Belichick to compare Carroll to for the next ten years.)